Welsh disability campaigners reject invitation to be ‘glorified doorstaff’ in controversial DWP review

A Welsh disability group has rejected a direct invitation from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to help “co-host” a workshop in Bangor, North Wales. It’s part of the controversial government Timms Review into the PIP disability benefit.

DWP doorstaff

In a statement (see below) Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru) explained that the invitation amounted to “a request for glorified doorstaff.”

DWP documents, which the Canary has seen, reveal that selected workshop co-hosts would be excluded from “deciding or designing workshop content” or “facilitating discussions during workshops” as these were “out of scope.”

Instead, the responsibilities on the day would be to “provide additional staff” to “welcome participants to the venue and help them settle in”, “set the scene” at the start, and “thank participants at the end.”

A DPAC Cymru spokesperson said:

The Timms review has repeatedly failed us as disabled people, and as Welsh people. It is not the ‘co-production’ that was promised to parliament. What’s needed is an independent review, democratically led by disabled people and our organisations including our trade unions.

We are not boycotting the review. We want to take part and put our views on the record, even as we protest outside. But we will not be there to smile and take people’s coats.

DPAC’s call for an independent review was recently backed by the Welsh Government, which said that the:

level of co-production has fallen well short of what disabled people in Wales have a right to expect.

DPAC Cymru Statement

On Friday [21 August], the Timms Review Steering Group wrote to Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru), inviting us to “co-host” one of the upcoming ‘shaping recommendations’ workshops looking at changes to the PIP disability benefit.

This put us in a difficult position. DPAC Cymru has consistently fought against the failings of the Timms Review. We have been clear that the review has repeatedly failed us as disabled people, and as Welsh people. We are clear that it is not the ‘co-production’ that was promised by Sir Stephen Timms to parliament last year – which even review co-chair Dr Clenton Farquharson acknowledges.

We did not want our name used to legitimise a review that was entirely unfit for purpose. But we also did not want to miss an opportunity to make it better.

Most importantly, we have consistently argued that we need an independent review, democratically led by disabled people and our organisations including our trade unions, that invites the views of non-disabled carers, volunteers, and workers in health, social care, housing, transport, education, and welfare.

Being ‘appointed’ by the DWP as co-hosts would take us no nearer to the independent review we need.

However, the briefing attached to the document made the decision easier for us. It explained what the DWP meant by “co-hosting.”

It said plainly that we would not be “deciding or designing workshop content” or “facilitating discussions during workshops” as these were “out of scope.”

Instead, this would be done by Public Sector Consultants (PSC) facilitators and a West-England disabled people’s organisation.

We would also “not be part of the workshop participants in an organisational capacity” and would “not be expected to provide feedback on recommendations.” In other words, we would have even less input as co-hosts than as attendees.

Instead, our role on the day would be to “welcome participants to the venue and help them settle in”, “set the scene” at the start, and “thank participants at the end”, for which we would be paid £37.50 per hour.

What the Timms Review have described as an invitation to “co-host” a workshop, is instead a request for glorified doorstaff.

We are not boycotting the review. We responded to the Call for Evidence. Our members want to attend the workshops and have our say on the record. We also intend to simultaneously protest outside the workshops, as we did in high-profile protests last year during the sham Pathways to Work consultation.

But we will not be there to smile and take people’s coats.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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